We visited this hotel for a one night stop over as part of a theatre and shopping break. Before I go any further I must make it clear that the rest of the trip was excellent. Unfortunately, this hotel was diabolical and has tainted our view of the company that we used to book the trip.

Do not go to this hotel....we had the follwing problems..

1. The room stank of smoke and damp - we were not offered smoking or none smoking and an alternative was not available.
2. There was a massive damp patch- spread over two walls and onto the ceiling.
3. The room was freezing on arrival.
4. Everything was dusty or dirty
5. The lampshades had mildew on them
6. The draught from the window was siberian
7. The bathroom (internal) had no extract fan working, had mildew all over the tiling and bath seal, and the toilet hinges were full of dried urea.
8. The evening duty manager offered us a change of room at midnight - too late to be bothered - but we did get our evening meal free after insisting.

BTW the food side is actually decent - obviously improved from previous reviews.

Well, where do I start!!! Dirty shabby excuse for a hotel!

The staff say they just had a refurb! Well wot sort of workmen do they employ!! I could of layed the carpet myself it was so badly done.

Do they have any sort of cleaning staff at all? The carpet looked like it hadn't seen a hoover in years. And a mop wont go a miss!

Staff were quite polite!

I'm not even going to mention the food!

Location okay.

Entertainment... what entertainment??

I would never visit this hotel again.

When we pulled up at the hotel, by looking at the building the first thing that popped into our minds was a dirty prison block.

Unfortunately everything was paid for by family, so there was no other options whatsoever.

When entering we was greeted by a minging receptionist who had the distinctive aroma of cheap Russian vodka, she gave us attitude and she was rather rude.

The plastic key card we manage to get didn't work, neither did the 2nd one we got. After another 20 min the duty manager let us in by a so called master key.

Great start! (This got a lot worse!!)

The hotel room: a classic room from the late 60's. It was a right state. Everything was really under hotel standards. The telly had no remote, the shower was dripping, unable to open the window. Hairs all over the place incl in the old rusty bed.

We decided to take everything as a joke instead of getting upset, so we spend a few minutes cleaning the room, and jumped into bed. We really just needed some sleep before a big day. (Wedding in Chelmsford)

We managed to get a few hours sleep before breakfast, which was another massive mistake.

Bacon was black, sausages were raw and everything was with the taste of oil. Very unpleasant.

We left the full English and went for a slice of toast instead. Toast was ok reason being: we did it ourselves.

Service was not up to standards.

Made a quick exit to the door not worth complaining.

The place is a joke and needs some sort of new management.

Dirty excuse of a hotel. They have the cheek to call it a 3 star. Have a giggle!!!!

Our advice: unless you like complaining stay as far away as possible from this so called prison looking "motel"

Dirty, nasty little excuse for a hotel.

Staff extremely helpful and friendly, especially the man who took the time to show me directions to London.

Restaurant carpet was disgusting, breakfast food was good, my room had hairs on the floor in the toilet and had a suspect brown mark in the toilet bowl!

The hotel pipes this music everywhere, they must have recorded it from 'cheese FM', most annoying!

Location was good for me and was easy to find, it's a shame, a littly investment would greatly improve the dark and very tired appearance within the hotel.

The hotel has too many problems to list, my main
gripe is breakfast. The hotel was full with germans.

No space left to eat for regular guests, had to sit in the bar on a small table and bar stool.

The selection of food was totally inadequate. Had to queue for about 10 mins just for a slice of toast.

I wasn't expecting this hassel when I thought I was booking into a proper hotel, I needed a comfortable bed, breakfast in the morning and go to work.

THIS DIDNT HAPPEN.

The best advice i can pass onto anyone is to stay away
from this advertised hovel!!

we arrived at the hotel at about 6.30pm, and after our long drive down to sunny south east essex
were greeted at reception by what can only be described as a drunken tramp in a soiled waistcoat and harry potter style glasses (just to set the scene).

the first room we were given was quite obviously someone elses room! we were moved to another room with no explanation as to why the first cock-up happened.
the second room we couldnt even get in with the key
that was provided, we took another trip back to the run down 70's style reception area, to obtain the correct key when a female receptionist in her 60's preceeded to 'hiss and tut' as she had to bend down and cut another key.

after some time we managed to get into our second room, we found the curtains half hung on the rail, bedspread which had no co-ordination with any colour in the room, also had cigarette burns and stains over it. we moved the bed to discover the carpet hadnt been vacumed since the hotel was built in the 70's!
we tried to have a shower before our meal, the water trickled from the inadequate shower head.

eventually we made it down for dinner, what a mistake!
the restaurant had a large german group in who were served a school dinner type meal. we were left waiting for nearly an hour while they had their slops dished up for them! we had plenty of time to admire the antiquated surroundings including the naff dirty copper/brass pillars, and stained brickwork with cigarette butts in between bricks.
no need to go into great detail about the dried up carvery food, most of the veg had been scattered onto the grimey, torn, stained and dingy carpet.

after the meal the dj played and was most kind to play my request. would have been more enjoyable if we could have been served a drink at the table, but the waitresses were too busy dancing than paying any attention to the customers, poor service.

we were given the bill by the man we first saw when we arrived at the hotel! by this time he appeared even 'happier'!! (and if possibly, MORE soiled)there was a destinct aroma/stench surrounding him. if this is the general standard of the front line staff at this hotel, what standards (if any) do they have behind the scenes e.g the kitchen.

although we have logged our complaint on this website, we decided that there would be no point complaining. at the time we wanted to check out the queue was too long and this would only delay all the other guests.

it wouldn't take a fool to realise that complaining would have no affect on the already badly run hotel, the majority of staff lack customer service training.
however the hotel must save a considerable amount of money by paying their staff with alcholic drinks rather than sterling cash!!!!!!!!!

next time i have to stay in the area i will either research properly or just bring myself a large cardboard box and sleep rough.

in conclusion, this is the worst experience that i have had to endure in my life, apart from when my appendix burst, but the two come very close.

We felt the hotel was a bit 'tired' and shabby. It needed a team of cleaners to blitz the bar area and a coat of paint throughout and it would have made a real difference, but we were told that it was about to have a complete refurb, so hopefully that will do the trick.
We had a swarm of ants in our bathroom, and when I asked someone to come and sweep them up, the Duty Manager came and did the job and also gave us a very generous reduction in our room rate, so I feel everyone was as helpful as they could be. My only 'gripe' would be that I requested non-smoking rooms and my room stank of smoke, fortunatly, my Mothers room (she is asthmatic)was fine.
The staff were all friendly.

I had the misfortune of staying here in Dec 2003. The website for the hotel should be sued under Trade Descriptions as it bares no resembelance to what the reallity is here.

The place is shabby, run-down and in need of a major refurb. My room was strangly described as an "Executive Double" I would hate to see a standard room if that's the Exec ! The curtains were hanging broken from the rail in the room, everything was old and tatty and worst of all the shower lived up to it's look. IT WAS GARBAGE, no water just a very fine mist, therefore had to rinse of in the sink.

Worst of all is the Restaurant, it's very, very dirty. I shared my seat with 2 cigarrette ends, crushed and broken glass and various amounts of decaying food. The smell emitting from the seating was thoroughly disgusting and I had to leave before I finished my overpriced carvery meal (2 small courses